Mint Chocolate Pie

Mint chocolate anything is my FAVORITE! If you're looking for a mint chocolate pie to take to a holiday gathering or for someone who also loves mint chocolate food, you'll have to try this recipe. It's so easy!

The holidays are busy and stressful. It's also cold and the cold causes my motivation to crash. On a farm, that's not really an option though. Cows don't take holiday vacations and need to be cared for and fed each and every day regardless of water. Snowing and -15: feed and take care of cows. Sunny, humid and 97: feed and care for cows. Rain, rain and more rain: feed and take care of cows. Everyone I know that farms wouldn't have it any other way though.

Holidays are like any other day on a dairy farm and the schedule may look something like this:

• Walk pens to observe cows/check for heats (to see if they are ready for breeding)
• Prepare feed for the cows. This may mean mixing a total mixed ration of numerous feed ingredients and then delivering it to the cows. It can also mean feeding individual ingredients. Every farm is different. 
• Get the parlor and milk house ready for milking
• Milk cows
• While the cows are in the parlor, this is a good time to clean their pens and fluff their beds (sand or another type of bedding). Since usually there's more than one person working on the dairy at a time, this is a job for someone other than the person in the milking parlor. 
• Clean up the milking parlor (cows can be very messy!)
• Prepare bottles of milk for the baby calves
• Feed bottles to the baby moos
• Feed grain and water and clean pens
• Fill water troughs
• Push up feed so it's closer to the cows
• Check cows again.
• Possibly a short break
• Dinner may have to be early or later to work around milking. Many people will have an early dinner and then head back out to the barn.
• Back to the barn!
• Make sure the cows still have enough feed. Push up feed again (Feed is often pushed up several times a day. It doesn't do any good if the cows can't reach it)
• Get the parlor and milk house ready for milking
• Milk cows
• Clean up the milking parlor 
• Prepare bottles of milk for the baby calves
• Feed bottles to the baby moos
• Check cows again
• Push up feed again

If there are cows calving, they need attention too. Occasionally, a calf will be backwards, breached or just need assistance. This can't wait until after dinner or the Christmas party. It must happen now.

There are a lot of other tasks on a dairy, this just gives you a taste of how much is involved. This assumes that nothing goes wrong and nothing breaks. That's a good day. It seems like something always breaks or something always gets off schedule.

Mint Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

• 2 boxes of Chocolate pudding
• Your favorite variety of white milk (for amount, consult directions on pudding box...they can vary)
• 1 cup crushed Andes mints
• 1 cup melted Andes mints
• Ready made pie crust, graham cracker crust or make your own pie crust

Directions

1. Follow pudding directions, adding 1/2 cup less milk than directions call for (for 2 boxes; for one add 1/4 cup less milk)...for thicker filling, use less milk
2. Add melted andes mints into chocolate pudding
3. Stir until evenly mixed
4. Add pudding mixture to pie crust before it sets
5. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes
6. Add 1 cup of crushed Andes mints to the top
7. Enjoy!

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